A Study in Crimson
by Davelin Marque
Summary: Two nocturnal champions find themselves in an epic showdown! Rated M for expected violence and intimacy in future chapters.


**Disclaimer: I own copyright claims to all League of Legends characters and will be suing Riot Games for stealing them from me :3**

**Foreword:**

**Hello, this is Davelin Marque, and I am proud to present the first chapter of my second story. It is a very rough draft, but I think that it sets the scene rather nicely, wouldn't you agree?**

**I'm not sure exactly how the other chapters will pan out, but they will most likely involve Vayne raping Vladimir or vice versa, and I assume there will be some violent scenes as well. Keeping with my previous attempt at plausibility, I will do my best to make the rape scene reasonable, rather than just having rape for rape's sake. This paragraph has the word rape in it a lot.**

** Feedback is greatly appreciated as per usual.**

**-Davelin Marque**

****Chapter The First

_The night seeks no meaning,_  
_The night seeks no ends._

_The night has no feeling,_  
_The night has no friends._

Shauna Vayne was alive in death. The world was an evil thing. It twisted and corrupted all those who once sook to control it, bending mind and body into a sickening mess of darkness and violence. The most horrendous part of this cycle was that the law did not forbid it. There was nobody to stand watch. There was no guardian of the innocent, no destroyer of evil.

Yet as young Shauna grew into a woman, the memory of her past held her mind in a vice-like grip. She slipped on a pair of blood red shades. She bound her long hair into a jet blac, braided knot.

Enemies fell before her. The darkness seemed to beckon, yet she would not be overhelmed.

She donned a long dark cloak. She picked up her steel crossbow, and its quiver of deadly silver bolts.

So she beat on, a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

The boots she wore spoke of a predator. She was of this world, and yet all those who were evil fell against her. Like a pestilence, the more she vanquished, the more kept coming.

From her mind, she withdrew a scene from a month ago.

* * *

In a single graceful bound, Shauna leaped to the nearest building on her left. It's purpose was unknown to her. Below her, a drunken man saw the shadow fly though the night sky.

"There goes that Vayne," he said to one of his buddies with a smirk. "They'll catch her one day, you know." The other man grunted with disgust, pulling his coat around him tighter as a cool wind blew past. Everyone had heard the stories. The little girl who's parents were murdered, out for revenge.  
"Is it not ironic," he began after a moment, "that to her foes, she is just as heartless as those she hunts?" The drunkard nodded in agreement as he crossed the road. He was not the first one to voice this opinion. Many of the citizens had often wondered about her motives and considered what they meant.

Above them, a black shadow chuckled to itself. She did not conern herself with the nightmares of a nightmare. If something feels no mercy, one need not show it as such.

One thing bothered her, though. Nothing was wrong with Demacia. No thief hid in the shadows. The screams of the innocent had long since faded. Shauna had often thought about how the rest of Valoran was filled with evil. It almost seemed as if the evil she had purged simply moved across the continent.

She recalled a promise made to her dying mother.

No matter what happens, no matter how far I have to go or what lengths and measures I must take, I shall return honor to the House of Vayne.

There was nowhere on Runeterra more corrupt than Noxus, the center of filth and misery. If fulfilling her promise meant journeying to the root of all evil, so be it.

* * *

That was how she found herself where she was now.

Somewhere, a dog barked. Voices could be heard of men, arguing. On the rooftops of the city-state of Noxus, Shauna kneeled against a large facade. A lone vigilante in a land where everyone was against her. Her mind was highly attuned to her innate senses. There came a yell from below, and she instinctevly crouched lower behind the facade. The other side portayed a sloping, immaculate exterior of a long abandoned inn.

If she had learned on thing in her experiences, it was that one never had search for evil. Evil never stopped and rested, rather, it permeated every civilization in the world. It filled every crevice of every cobblestone in Zaun, and surrounded every building in Piltover. No matter where one looks, something evil is always lurking.

With that in mind, she wandered aimlessly through the city. Her travlings favored neither slum nor tavern, for, as she well knew, what she looked for would cross her path on its own sooner or later.

* * *

As it just so happened, her path was about to get crossed sooner than she would have normally expected.

The weathered grounds outside the meeting area known as Taminy Hall were bathed in the dull glow of streetlights. People roamed about, remnants of a once thriving nightlife.

A young Noxian man strode briskly down sides of the street directly across from the hall. He wore an old business suit, worn around the edges but kept neat. It was clear he was late for some appointment. His steps took him down the street and around a corner where he faded into the night. One only leaves the safety of streetlights when in a hurry or when conducting shady business.

Of course, there is no better time to conduct shady activities than under cover of darkness, and nobody knew this better than Vladimir, a man who also lived for the night. He prowled the streets of Noxus like a wraith, seeking to satisfy his one need. The only thing that kept Vladimir alive was the death of others by his hand, and short of that, copious amounts of blood would suffice.

A killer by trade, Vladimir had many local assets around Noxus. Allying with the townspeople let him know all the moved, and knowlege was power for any sworn hunter. As he lay in the shadows behind an old abandoned factory, the young man in the suit walked by him. Vladimir spoke his name with a whisper.

"Vladimir?" The man looked around, cautious and alert. "Is that you?" He squinted into the darkness and his eyes eventually landed upon the smooth-skinned man who paid him for information.

"What news have you?" Vladimir asked as he approached.

"Well,"he began. "It was a bit of a suprise to me at first..."

"Go on."

"You see, I heard tell that Shauna Vayne was in Noxus."

"Lies!" spat Vladimir.

"it's the truth! I myself was at first dubious as well but I have laid eyes on her not but this very evening! She's here, all right, and if she ever finds you I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that fight."

"Don't worry," Vladimir said, slipping some coins into the man's palm. "It won't be hard for her to find me. In fact, I might just go and search out this "night hunter" myself." The informant shivered.


End file.
